THE JOL VERDICT

Martin Jol offers his considered reaction to victory over Charlton, reflects on two milestones of 100 and looks ahead to the challenge of taking on Blackburn at the Lane on Thursday...

Martin Jol offers his considered reaction to victory over Charlton, reflects on two milestones of 100 and looks ahead to the challenge of taking on Blackburn at the Lane on Thursday...IT WAS A very important win for us against Charlton on Monday and we now need another three points from the next two games - hopefully we will get six - to book a return to European football for next season.

It will not be easy with having to play on Monday, Thursday and Sunday but, with the support of our crowd over the two home fixtures, we can manage to get the right results and achieve an excellent finish to our campaign.

We have suffered only one league defeat since February 10 and have had several very good spells over the course of the season. We had a poor start, but it was a tough beginning to the season with a number of new players introduced to the side and during that time the most disappointing result was the one against Everton at the Lane.

We have been a bit inconsistent sometimes, but if you have to do without the likes of Jermaine Jenas and Ledley King for lengthy periods, it is not easy. At the end of the day it is about doing well in the cups and in the league and hopefully, come Sunday evening, we can be pleased over the outcome of our season.

I feel if you have three strikers who net 60 goals between them you are doing well and there probably isn't another club who have had such a return from their front men. We have to do well in all departments and, as I have mentioned before, 16 of our players have found the net this season, which is an encouraging sign.

We have now scored more than 100 goals and I have been told that it is 20 years since we have managed that - so there are a lot of good things, but we still have to improve.

Another 100 theme is that of reaching my ton of Premiership games in charge. It is unbelievable, I have been here coming up to three years now and it has been a great time for me.

My aim is always for the team to get better and better, the fans are waiting for it, but the immediate target is to qualify for Europe for the second season running so we can continue our journey. We all bond together - fans, team, staff - and we are a real club.

Blackburn are the next obstacle in our bid to realise our short-term ambition, we must get the points we need as soon as possible and our crowd will know that and will, I am 100 per cent certain, get behind us.